Foundation University Medical College Convocation

FUMC graduates get degrees
Islamabad, April 27: The Convocation 2012 of the Foundation University Medical College (FUMC) was held here on Thursday.

Foundation
University (Islamabad) President Lieutenant General (r) Muhammad
Mustafa Khan was the chief guest on the occasion. FU (Islamabad) Rector
Professor Dr. Belal A. Khan was also present.

As many as
101 MBBS graduates were awarded with degrees by the FUI president who
also awarded six gold medals, five silver medals, five distinction
certificates and 36 merit certificates. The award for best graduating
student was clinched by Madeeha Abdul Ghaffar.

Foundation
University Medical College Principal Major General (r) Dr
Nasim-ul-Majeed presented the annual college report, highlighting the
progress and academic excellence it has achieved in the last academic
year.

The FUI president said that today FUMC stands out
as a prominent institution among medical colleges of the country. He
said several hundred graduates from FUMC are in the mainstream of
medical profession not only within Pakistan but also in other countries.
Quite a few of them have acquired postgraduate qualifications from
local and international institutions, he added.

The
president said that no academic programme could succeed without
diligence and commitment of the faculty. FUMC is privileged to have
hard-working and dedicated faculty whose guidance has played a key role
in achieving the high academic standards. "I am glad to know that the
college authorities are fully aware of the importance of co-curricular
activities in the development of a well rounded personality which is so
essential for the role of healer in society," he said.

The
president informed the audience that construction of a new block to
house the dental college has also begun and it is expected that BDS
programme shall be launched by the year 2013. In the end, Professor Dr
Belal A. Khan presented a shield to the FUI president. Th news

H-9 College hostel Students suffer as FDE, varsity wrangle
Islamabad: The dispute between Federal Directorate
of Education (FDE) and Comsats University over a hostel building has not
been resolved even after 11 years due to which the students are
suffering a lot, it has been learnt.

Besides, the university has not paid the rent of the 48-room hostel at the Islamabad Model College, H-9, for the last two years.

According to documents available with Dawn, the FDE has been trying
to get the possession of the hostel being used by Comsats University.

An official of the FDE on the condition of anonymity said that in the
year 2000, when Zubaida Jalal was the federal minister for education,
the 48-room hostel building of Islamabad Model College (then called
Federal Government Degree College for Boys) was handed over to the
Comsats University under political pressure.

The official said it was initially decided that Rs12,000 yearly rent
would be paid by Comsats University to the management of H-9 College for
the 48 rooms. In 2004, however, the university did not pay the rent due
to which the college management raised the matter with it. Later in
that year, however, the university paid Rs48,000.

"After that the management of the college and some officials of the
FDE and the Ministry of Education tried to get the building vacated. As a
result, the university paid Rs5.6 million to the college in 2010 and it
was decided that in future the rent would be charged at the market
rate. The college management purchased a bus from that amount," he said.

A professor of the H-9 College, requesting not to be named, added:
"In 2011, we requested the Public Works Department (PWD) to evaluate the
amount of rent of the hostel.

According to PWD's estimate, 27,653 square-foot covered area of the
ground floor and 14,823 square-foot covered area of the first floor
(total 42,476 square feet) was in the possession of Comsats University.
The PWD suggested Rs424,760 monthly rent of the building – at the rate
of Rs10 per square foot according to its location and current market
rate."

He said after getting the estimate from the PWD, one-and-a-half years
have passed but the university has not paid a single rupee. On the
other hand, students of the college are suffering due to the lack of
hostel.

The professor said there are cubicles and rooms in the hostel in
which three to five students can be accommodated in each room. The
students of Comsats University have been living in the rooms for the
last many years and they must be paying heavy amount to the university,
he added.

Mohammad Ali, a student of the college, said: "I have been living in a
flat at Sector G-9 just because the college management has rented out
the hostel to the university. I cannot understand why such a step was
taken because most of the students want to stay in the college hostel as
it will reduce their transportation costs and provide them better environment."

The principal of the college, Azhar Bhatti, when contacted, said they
had sent many letters to the Comsats University for the vacation of the
building but got no reply. "I also tried to hold a meeting with the
management of the university but they even did not reply," he said.

Director General FDE Atif Kiyani said he had instructed the relevant
department to take the university on board and get the building vacated.
"If they want to retain the rooms they should pay the rent according to
the market rate." He added that the matter would be resolved soon.

When contacted, Asad Zia, an assistant registrar (media) at the
Comsats University, said: "The management is well aware of the issue and
wants to resolve it amicably. Letters from the college management and
the FDE have been received and a positive reply will be given soon." Dawn

Students steal show at NUML speech contest
Islamabad: Debate and speech contests are held to encourage students to take
interest in studies, develop personality and think outside the box, said
National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Rector Maj Gen (r)
Masood Hasan on Thursday.

Addressing a prize distribution
ceremony for debate and speech contest, arranged by the English Studies
Department, he told students that co-curricular activities supplement
curricular activities and help students find new avenues through which
they can explore and polish their talents and abilities.

"It is a
great source of satisfaction and inspiration that students are paying
equal attention to both sides of their campus life," he added.

Moreover,
he also appreciated the level and performance of the students and
commended efforts of the faculty for encouraging students towards such
healthy activities.

A persuasive tone, logical reasoning, eye
opening facts and figures, dramatic rise and fall, exuberance and a wish
to outdo others made the debate and speech contest a very interesting
event.

The preparation and delivery of the speeches by the
students was an admirable demonstration of the art of public speaking.
Moreover, two skits by the students about the bitter realities of
present day world stole the show and spoke volumes of the fact that life
at campus had trained them well to face the world outside.

A
total of 15 students from the department participated in Urdu and
English debate and speech competition and presented their views with
masterly acumen. The rules of the contest required that the speech carry
a strong theme regarding the present day social, cultural, economical
and geo-political aspects of life.

The speech had to be completely memorised, no notes allowed, and must be between three and five minutes in length.

Khadeeja
Atta secured the first position, Shahzia Javaid secured second
position, while Mirza Attaur Rauf came in third in English debate. Arif
Qureshi stood first, Sara Anwar remained second while Abida Khanam was
declared third in the Urdu speech contest.

The prizes were
distributed by the NUML rector and head of English Studies Department Dr
Shaheena Ayub Bhatti. The event was also attended by Director General
Brig Azam Jamal, director academics, director administration and
director students affairs, faculty members and a great number of
students. Daily times

PU Gujranwala campus picked for global award
Lahore: The Business Initiative Directions (BID),
an international organisation based in Madrid, Spain, has selected the
Punjab University's Gujranwala campus for International Arch of Europe
Award (IAEA) 2012.

The BID has lauded the leadership of Prof Dr Ehsan Malik as PU campus director general.

For selection of IAEA Award 2012, according to a news release issued
here on Thursday, a voting process was carried out during the BID World
Congress with meetings in Paris, London, Geneva, Frankfurt, Madrid and
New York over the past 12 months. It was based on one or several of the
concepts such as the QC100 principles, customer satisfaction,
leadership, technology, best practice, business results, ISO 9000 and
TQM.

Prof Malik will receive the award at a ceremony to be held in
Frankfurt, Germany, on April 30 (Monday). The ceremony will be attended
by organisations from 72 countries, together with leaders from business
fields, professionals from the world of economics, academic
personalities and representatives from the diplomatic corps.

IBIT: The PU Institute of Business and Information Technology (IBIT)
is organising its first job fair on Saturday (tomorrow) from 9am to 5pm.
The job fair has been organised to provide employment opportunities to
intelligent students of the institution.

As many as 18 national and multinational companies are setting up
their stalls which will interview students and collect their CVs.

Crash courses for out-of-school children planned
Lahore: The Punjab government has planned to
allocate funds and human resources to respective schools according to
their enrolment ratio during the next financial year.

This initiative will help bring out-of-school children back to
schools, claimed Punjab School Education Department's additional
secretary Malik Mukhtar Noul.

Punjab Assembly Standing Committee on Education chairman Chaudhry
Javed Ahmad said the Punjab government would increase the development
budget of the school education department from this year's Rs14 billion
to Rs19 billion in the next fiscal.

To bring the out-of-school children to schools, he said, campuses of
public sector schools should be utilised at their optimum level by
launching flexible schooling to offer crash courses for out-of-school
children and then mainstream them after an examination. "The Punjab
government will begin this project even as a pilot project this year,"
he said.

They were speaking at a policy dialogue on "Out-of-School Children in
Punjab - Looking at Access and Equity" organised by
Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi at a local hotel on Thursday.

Former Punjab education minister Mian Imran Masood said the
out-of-school children was a big challenge for any government but
retaining the enrolled students was even a bigger challenge.

Referring to utilisation of resources, he said, there was a need to
bring in more resources for the education sector, but utilising
available resources judiciously was even more important.

Mr Masood said there was a strange pyramid that there was a huge base
of primary and elementary schools (72 per cent), while there were far
less middle and high schools and even less (just 450) colleges in the
province. He said this pyramid of public sector educational facilities
ensured that children should drop out as they climbed up to higher
classes.

To give incentive to children, he said, the previous Pervaiz Elahi
government had abolished tuition fee in public schools and had foregone
its income of around Rs480 million.

He said the government had also introduced a revolutionary incentive of free textbooks for children studying in public schools.

"The government will have to provide missing facilities, including
classrooms, drinking water, toilet and electricity, to attract children
to schools," he said.

Mr Masood said the government would be required to ensure equity as
well as access to education for all 5-16 years of age children in Punjab
in the wake of Article 25-A.

Chaudhry Javed Ahmad said that out of eight million out-of-school
children in the country, some 3.8 million such children were in Punjab.

In order to attract children towards education, he said, the
government had opened kids centres in each primary school in Lahore and
some other districts.

He said those centres were offering Early Childhood Education that would help retain children in education.

Besides optimally using the public school buildings, he said, there
was a need to mobilise the public-private partnership, open community
schools and above all offer skill-based education so that the schools'
pass outs could get some jobs and earn livelihood for their families.

He said that there was not a single shelter-less elementary and
secondary school, while there were only a few shelter-less primary
schools in the province.

Referring to Article 25-A and Punjab government's obligations, Mr
Ahmad said the subject of education had been devolved but the federal
government had yet not released the resources to meet this obligation.

Punjab Education Foundation chairman Raja Anwar said the educational
facilities in Punjab were in pyramid shape and added that it's roots
(primary and elementary schools) were hollow and "termite-stricken".

He said the schools were of two to three rooms and more than one
classes were sitting in a classroom resulting in no clear education for
children.

He stressed that each primary school should have six classrooms and
added that this equation demanded construction of some 139,000 new
classrooms in existing schools and the provision of furniture. This
initiative would cost some Rs400 billion, he added.

Mr Anwar said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had given 100,000 new
vouchers to bring marginalised children to PEF-partner schools for
formal education.

Mr Noul said that government schools had an enrolment of 12 million
children adding that it had teachers who could cater to even double the
number of children.

He claimed that some 2.8 million children had been enrolled under the
Chief Minister's School Education Road Map initiative last year.

Punjab Universitys faculty of education dean Prof Dr Hafiz Muhammad
Iqbal said the enrolment in private schools had touched 33 per cent and
had reached its saturation point. "Now, the government will have to step
forward to educate its citizens, otherwise poor will get poorer and
they will resort to extremism," he observed.